Santa Clarita Art Association Website Redesign
UX/UI Certificate
University of California, Berkeley Extension
February 2023
Goals:
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Design an engaging music website that allows users to build their own vinyl record, consisting of their favorite individual songs.
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Create an easy and accessible way for users to receive their custom vinyls.
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Build the Desktop version as the main platform.
Team of four designers.
Role: UX Designer, Researcher
Audience: General public/community members that are interested in art, this includes families, seniors, adults, young adults and children.
Tools: Figma, Canva
Length: 3 Weeks
Project Overview:
Santa Clarita Art Association is a local Community Art Center in Santa Clarita, California that supports and encourages local artists to create, share and grow their skills as visual artists
Problem
Santa Clarita Art Association had low community engagement and wanted to increase their community outreach through their website. The team wanted to make the process of signing up for and attending an event at the SCAA convenient and enjoyable. We wanted to increase community outreach through their website.
Solution
We identified that the users were having a difficult time signing up for events as the process was confusing. To solve this pain point, we updated the navigation to streamline the process and send the user all the information they need to attend an event, promoting more community engagement.
The Process
This project started with Research and finished with Prototyping and Testing.
Discovery & Analysis
To gain insight, we began by interviewing users who are interested in Art and going to events.
What they said...
"I like to know how to prepare for an event."
"I've had frustration with the membership process, specifically the prices and lack of options."
"Not knowing enough about an event would prevent me from going."
"I want a straightforward website process. Given QR code after signing up to use for entering a gallery."
Some of the questions we asked... 1. Do you have an interest in art? 2. Do you attend community art galleries/art shows? 3. If so, how do you find out about them? 4. If not, would you be interested in attending an art gallery? 5. How easy is the process for you to attend a gallery? 6. What steps did you take when signing up for an art gallery event? 7. What were some of the problems you ran into when signing up for the event? 8. Would you donate to your community art gallery? 9. If you wanted to take an art class, what steps would you take? 10. What did you enjoy about the process of attending an event at your local art center? 11. What kind of art event would you want to attend? 12. How do you hear about your community art center? 13. Why do you attend local art events? 14. What are some of the problems to run into when attending an art gallery event? 15. What you prevent you from going to a local art event?
Cognitive Walkthrough
To better understand how users navigate the Santa Clarita Art Association website to sign up for events, we conducted a cognitive walkthrough. We discovered that the interface was confusing and unclear, causing users to abandon the process before completion.
Some questions we asked ourselves while we were conducting the cognitive walkthrough.
1. Did the user achieve the expected outcome?
2. Was it clear to the user what options were available to them?
3. Does the user find that all options produced the result they were expecting?
4. Does the user feel like progress toward their goal or obtaining the information they were seeking to occurred?
Competitive Analysis
To gain a better perspective on the industry, we performed a competitive analysis of other art museum and event websites. We found that only one other website fit all the criteria we were searching: having a visitor tool kit (consists of hours, location, ticket info, guidelines, etc.), have a calendar and event sign up, artist profile, and an online gallery.
We drew significant inspiration from various website, and our key takeaway was how a clean, minimalistic layout can truly highlight the artwork on the site. One of our biggest influences was the New Mexico Museum of Art.
Hypothesis Statement
Most users want to go to an art museum to be immersed in art and meet new people, but the lack of information and disorganization dissuades them from purchasing tickets. We believe that an easy to use and information website focused more on building community and conveying easily digestible information then there would be an increase in community engagement and artist publicity.
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
We were able to work as a team and create a product and design we are all proud of.
Next Steps:
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Continue with user research and high-fidelity iterations.
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Complete high fidelity for the mobile device.
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interview record stores to identify ways to build. relationship with local vendors.
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Create a meta store.
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Continue market research to set affordable price points.